Fiction writers, does this sound familiar? “I want to write a story, but I don’t have any ideas!” YAWN. Look, I know the feeling. But you can’t use that excuse anymore. Why? Because I’m about to give you a story-generating tool that’ll leave you with no excuses. Except maybe that you have no time. I respect … Read more
Rekindling a sense of wonder … that’s the key to getting back your creativity and breaking writer’s block. You can’t force wonder, though — especially not while you’re living on coffee and anxiety and listening too much to the Inner Critic. You have to step back and let yourself play. But how? Let me introduce you to someone … Read more
To the Barnes & Noble in State College — or really, any Barnes & Noble anywhere. Indie bookshops have great charm, but among the corporate chains, there’s no one like B&N. (Well, literally. There’s practically no one else left in business…) THE BOOKSTORE Windows, wide, stretching the length of this hall, brilliant glass, radiant with … Read more
Thank Amazon for free Kindle samples…because what a difference an opening chapter makes. The other day, after finishing Mariette in Ecstasy, I hungered for another good story and so consulted my ever-growing to-read list. There were two books in particular that I was curious about, so I downloaded their opening chapters to compare. It was a good … Read more
Thanks to the WD Poetry Awards and the November PAD Chapbook Challenge, I’ve been writing a lot more poetry lately. And I’m rediscovering how much I’ve always loved it. I cannot explain poetry. That’s partially why I gave it up in the first place — I could never figure out how one could tell whether … Read more